Agricultural Labour during the German Occupation of Guernsey

Mr Ray Caradeuc interviewed by Margaret Le Cras

Transcribers note : Transcription difficult at times because interviewer was nearer the microphone and her interjections sometimes upstage Mr Le Caradeuc, who is rather faint. Where the interviewer’s comments are relevant they have been transcribed in full.

I………. so what happened?
Ray Caradeuc. I don’t know. We had the sack.
[laughter]
I………. Out of work
I………. At least you didn’t get shot.
Ray Caradeuc. No. [ ] if we get the sack we won’t get shot. I went to [ ] and who should pass along the road but somebody that sold us a radio, from St Peters, did I mention him? And he said “What about coming to work for us”. I thought , that’s nice, [ ] in farming, so I said yes, OK, so the following week I went out there.
I………. So, did you stay on the farm for the rest of the war?
Ray Caradeuc. Ah, no,
I………. Oh, you didn’t?
Ray Caradeuc. Oh no no.
I………. Oh, you changed about
Ray Caradeuc. We fell out. Well, there was no words said, but you could tell. He said, we’ll do farming and a bit of radio work. So, it came, we had no batteries. We could charge them, because it was in those days you used to have an accumulator. [barking in distance] One minute, while I put my dog…
I………. Dogs all right, don’t worry about it
[pause]
Ray Caradeuc. Quite a lot of ground. We grew vegetables of course, and we had [ ]
I………. So really, you could always take a few home…
Ray Caradeuc. Yes, but all our fields were out Pleinmont, Pleinmont point, you know, I saw all that being built, and the Germans were quite, well it wasn’t the Germans working there, it was all the foreign labour. And we used to go weeding. The Skipper, used to say, right, we’ll employ eight chappies, they’ll cover so much today, they’ll work like blazes, and whatever time I think you’ve covered what I think should be covered, you can go home. So we used to finish at three, four o’clock. We used to do that quite a time for, the period of weeding time, and potatoes we had up there, [ ]
I………. I suppose they walked. Potatoes walked
Ray Caradeuc. When you used to pick them there was nothing there, only the stalks.
I………. I mean, lets face it, there was a lot of thieving during the war, eh? There was.
Ray Caradeuc. Oh yes, I mean, we had potatoes up the road to us, where we lived, on the left, well the foreigners all came down, [ ] but you had to get the States to come and measure a perch of ground, and you had to dig that perch of potatoes, and to prove it, you had only a hundred weight or two hundredweight a perch, and [ ] when you had done it, and it doesn’t always say you would have that the next day.
I………. Did you keep any pigs?
Ray Caradeuc. No
I………. You didn’t
Ray Caradeuc. We did. We kept pigs. It was too much of a worry. [ ] to feed them, and you couldn’t give pigs potatoes because you were eating those as well. [ ]
I………. The story goes that my uncle Peter, eh, was had up, and he was put to jail, actually, for killing a pig, He stood in court, and he told them he had to kill it because it had broken its leg.
[laughter]
Ray Caradeuc. Well that’s right, but the Germans they wouldn’t accept that.
I………. No, they wouldn’t. So, were you married at this time?
Ray Caradeuc. No, fifty-four I got married.
I………. And you lived at the Groutez then?
Ray Caradeuc. No. because I thought where my people lived, it was a good site, where the Germans put their guns, right along, and the top field, they had, it was just cliffs, and they had four pom-poms up there, five barrels to a gun, and there was one right alongside the road as you go along towards North View,
I………. There was a big one at North View, eh, because after the war my father built a greenhouse in that field, and there was a huge bunker, he used to keep his seed potatoes in there because it was dry, but there was a lot of guns..
Ray Caradeuc. …used to use it for stacking all his potatoes [ ] belonged to him
I………. And it’s the same at the Pti Moulin, there’s a lot of bunkers there, eh
Ray Caradeuc. And at the Hougue
I………. Yes, at the top of the Hougue, yes, that right.
Ray Caradeuc. There was that Naval guns at North View, right across, it went from one side of the road to the other side. I went through there, after the war, after the Germans left, and I was covered in fleas! I’ve never seen so many fleas in all my life.
I………. I remember, they had one of them camouflaged in wood, eh? To make it look like a house, and this is after the war, the next day we went and all the wood had been taken, somebody had nicked all the wood. So where did you live, then, if you didn’t live…
Ray Caradeuc. Well, the Germans said “I’m afraid you’ve got to move, so we had to find a place, eh. We went to Ernest De Garis’s at St Leddards. He lived at St Martin’s, and we lived at the Croute. Two houses together, one end was St Leddards, and the other the Croute, so we went there. So we moved there, and I was still working for Bar then.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.